obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter claimed to think the same about romney. >> mitt romney is actually pretty good on his feet in debates. as these things go challengers normally win the first debate just by standing on the stage with the president, they could get a lift. >> eliot: romney has had plenty of practice standing on both sides of every issue. here is what he august. >> romney: the president has now raised taxes on the middle class. >> see there is one thing he has not done in the first four years that he said he is going to do in the next four years, which is to raise taxes. >> eliot: the committee offered support for todd akin who committed tuesday to staying in the race until the end? what seems to be an effort to look past akins comments, the commit released a statement that reed in part . . . just over a month ago, claire mccaskill lead akin by two points. and last week mccaskill was up by six. for more let's go to "politico"'s chief investigative reportervogel, and josh [ inaudible ]. is this race really almost over? >> yeah things do not look good for mitt